PEEFAGE, 



In the following pages I have sought to record such of my 

 Natural History observations, made in the course of a three- 

 years' cruise, as I judged most Kkely to prove of interest 

 to general readers as well as to professed naturalists. For 

 fuller details on the Zoology and Botany of the regions 

 visited by me, I must refer the latter to papers which have 

 been, or which will shortly be, contributed to various scien- 

 tific journals and societies. Lists of the Birds obtained in 

 the Strait of Magellan and on the West Coast of Patagonia, 

 from the pen of our two highest authorities on South Ameri- 

 can ornithology, Messrs. Sclater and Salvin, have already 

 appeared in the volumes of the Ihis for 1868, 1869, and 

 1870, which likewise contain several letters by myself on the 

 same subject ; and I am at present engaged in drawing up 

 some notes on the anatomy of that remarkable bird, the 

 Steamer-duck {Micropterus cinereus). An article on the 

 Eeptiles, Amphibia, Fishes, MoUusca, and Crustacea, pro- 

 cured during the expedition, will be found in a forthcoming 

 part of the Linnean Transactions, and I do not despair, in 

 course of time, to undertake the remaining Invertebrata. I 

 hope also, before many months elapse, to institute a careful 

 examination of my collections of plants now in the Eoyal 

 Herbarium, Kew, and to draw up a report on the same. 



